25 February 2008

This is Howgozit #12 for all ANA Wing Commanders and ANA Squadron Commanding Officers and
Membership-At-Large.  It would be much appreciated were you to pass this on to all your members.

You may have read recently that the air force is about to launch an advertising campaign to acquaint the citizens
of the United States with the importance of air power.  This comes about largely because it’s the army and the
Marines that are getting all the press about Iraq and Afghanistan and the air force apparently feels left out.  Much
as with the air force, the Navy is not getting much press either, but you don’t see complaints about it in the press.
Instead, that’s where members of the ANA can come in.  You can spread the word far faster and better than any
paid advertising scheme.  You can point out at every opportunity that Navy forces are indeed on station and in
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, at sea, in the air and on the ground too.  Yes, on the ground too.  The army and Marine “Boots on the ground” do indeed deserve all the credit we can heap upon them. They are carrying the lion’s share of the nation’s obligations in those wars and they stand to get the lion’s share of appropriations for operations and equipment replacement.  But you should know that the Navy is there too.  The media may favor others, but you should know that the Navy is playing a very large and critical role, whether headlined or not.   You and I must be on the ready to remind and educate whenever the opportunity arises.  After all, that’s the ANA goal, “…to educate and encourage an interest among the general public as to the importance of Naval Aviation in the defense of the United States and its allies….” 

Seldom do we hear about the Navy corpsmen shoulder to shoulder with the Marines.  Rarely do we hear about Seabees in the middle of as much or more hostile fire as the army and Marines.  We do hear on occasion of the Seals and some of the small craft and other mine clearing operators operating inshore but seldom do we hear of the over ten thousand, yes, ten thousand, Navy men and women stationed ashore in Iraq and Afghanistan working shoulder to shoulder with the army and Marines, in the combat zones.  They perform myriad critical duties doing things they never thought sailors would do, but performing with outstanding dedication and service.  They’re called Individual Augmentees or IAs, and they take this duty in mid career, sacrificing time for education or time spent with family.  Many of them come from aviation units too.  It’s not uncommon for a junior officer who has spent a cruise flying from the deck of a carrier into Iraq or Afghanistan to turnaround in short order and go back to the combat arena as an IA.  They’re tough and dedicated, these IAs are.  We owe them and their peers more than the Nation can ever repay and we ought to let our neighbors and colleagues know that they’re there.   

None of that takes away from what the carriers and the rest of Naval Aviation are contributing, however.   From the decks of carriers in the Persian Gulf or just outside the Gulf in the North Arabian Sea, carrier aircraft are flying constant sorties in support of our ground troops into Iraq and Afghanistan and, sometimes, reaching out toward Somalia and the nearby waters as well.  F/A-18s support army, Marine and special forces on the ground, often on sorties lasting six seven and even eight hours. There are never enough EA-6B Prowlers to begin to meet the need. The services of the P3 Orion’s are among the most demanded throughout the theater, and beyond.  Navy and Marine helicopters are everywhere required in numbers that won’t soon be achieved.  

Now, while all of this is going on in the Middle East, the Navy/Marine Corps team remains the Nation’s 911 force, trained and ready on arrival, able to trade on relationships forged in peace, deployed around the world.    

The Navy/Marine Corps team is the eyes and ears forward for the Nation, a capability not shared by the land-tethered army and air force.  In times of war our maritime forces’ ability to project and sustain power ashore makes them an indispensable element of any joint or combined force. 

It’s not only in the Middle East that naval forces are deployed, by the way.  South America, Africa, both east and west, the Pacific and Southeast Asia are all normal operating areas for fleet forces, Middle East demands notwithstanding.  They are building relationships with allies in what today is called, “Theater Security Cooperation,” through port visits, exercises and more.  They are suppressing drug traffic, tracking terrorists on the seas, fighting piracy and carrying out humanitarian and civil affairs missions, all routine for our naval forces; think typhoon relief in South Asia, evacuation in Lebanon, disaster relief in the wake of Katrina and fighting fires in Southern California.  All over the world Naval Aviation, fixed wing, sea based, land based and rotary wing is in the thick of it all.   

While we can all be proud of what Naval Aviation is doing, there’s a terrific downside too.  Our airplanes are wearing out.  Hornets are being used at an operational tempo that far exceeds what was planned and their service life is being used up at a rate way beyond that which was planned.  The P3 fleet has developed wing cracks which have grounded a large percentage of them and their replacement, the P8, cannot be accelerated enough to meet a very definite near-term shortfall.  You won’t hear a lot about this sort of thing in the media either.  While other services may cry aloud about their problems the Navy goes about quietly developing workarounds and planning the necessary fixes.  That doesn’t mean you can’t talk about such things with your friends and neighbors, however.  No matter how much our active duty colleagues develop workarounds and plan, it all comes down to money sooner or later; and it’s your legislator who votes the money. 

That said there’s good news on the horizon.  The equipage of the F/A-18s with the advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) is on track.  The development of the EA-18G Growler, the replacement for the EA-6B Prowler is on track.  The development of the replacement for the E-2C Hawkeye, the E-2D with a significantly improved radar, data processing, link suite and enhanced overland capability (and an in-flight refueling probe) is on track.  Despite the desire for it to come into the fleet more rapidly the P8 is, in fact, on schedule.  So is the long-planned helo modernization program wherein seven different helo type are being necked down to two:  the HH-60R and the HH-60S.  So far, so good; but your Congressman needs to keep those funding streams going.

Finally, and turning to a bit of ANA business, remember that your new ANA will have its first annual meeting in connection with the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation’s Annual Symposium on May 9, 2008.  If you haven’t yet signed up with the NAMF now is the time to do it.  We hope to see you there. 

Sky anchors aweigh! 

Bob Dunn.